PETALING JAYA: It has been eight years since the government made it compulsory for passengers in the backseats of cars to wear the seatbelt.
However, in actual fact a 2014 study by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) showed only a dismal 8.6% of passengers put on the rear seatbelt.
When approached by MetroPerak several people admitted to being guilty of not buckling up in the back seat – not because they do not care about their safety, but because they forget.
Advertising consultant Sai Phaik Cheng said: “I know it’s very bad but it’s just not in my habit to do so. I keep forgetting.”
Sai added that her two young children refuse to put on the seatbelt, unless travelling outstation.
“They say it’s uncomfortable and so I end up telling them sternly to put it on,” she said.
Always the one to drive, businessman Ken Gan says he hardly sits in the back seat.
“I admit that as the rear passenger, I don’t put on the seatbelt. It simply doesn’t cross my mind.
“I’ll be chit-chatting instead of making a conscious effort to buckle up,” he said.
Gan feels that the problem is that it is not ingrained in Malaysians to do so unlike in certain countries where stiff penalties are imposed on drivers and passengers who fail to use their seatbelts.
“It becomes something that people overlook when there is no strict enforcement,” he said.
The same study by Miros has shown that the fatality rate goes down dramatically by 44% if rear passengers put on theirs seatbelt.
When contacted, Perak Traffic Police Chief Superintendent Wan Jamil Wan Chik said it boils down to the attitude of passengers.
“We the police, do issue summonses.
“But we are talking about human beings here and I think it has more to do with people’s attitudes than whether there is enforcement,” he said, adding that both the police and Road Transport Department have jurisdiction over the matter.
Engineer T. Shashi, 40, said he never knew the importance of buckling up as a rear passenger until he went to the United Kingdom to study.
“Over there, the law is very strict. Every person aged 14 and above has to wear the seatbelt in the backseat or risk getting fined.
“They are also very big on public education. Even after having returned home for 20 years now, I still remember that when unrestrained in a crash at less than 50km per hour, you will hit the front seat and anyone in it with a force of between 30 and 60 times your own weight.
“And that is similar to the weight of a baby elephant!” he said, adding that he reminds his family members about this important fact at every opportunity.
Noting that the authorities in the UK are as aggressive in their education campaigns on seat belt safety as they are strict in their enforcement, Shashi said, perhaps the Malaysian government and other non-governmental organisations could re-initiate education and awareness campaigns on seatbelts.
“The fact that most people are still ignorant of the fact of how much harm can be caused by not buckling up in the rear calls for more to be done by all parties.
“I remember there were such efforts many years back, but it is almost non-existent now,” he said.
